Jul. 23, 2007: Little quiz, and the cost of parking

Jul. 23, 2007: Little quiz, and the cost of parking Rob Chrisman

Match the company with the recent change:

a)      Indy Mac

b)      Long Beach

The change:

1)      No longer doing stated income loans, and mortgage brokers are laughing at their reps when they walk into the office.

2)      Just laid off 400 Ops staff around the nation.

In Houston, $225,000 will buy a three-bedroom house with a game room, den, in-ground pool and hot tub. In Manhattan, it will buy a parking space. Spaces are in such demand that there are waiting lists of buyers, some of whom don’t even own cars but just rent them out. Eight people are hoping for the chance to buy one of five private parking spaces for $225,000 in the basement of 246 West 17th Street, a 34-unit condo development scheduled for completion next January. Parking in new developments is selling for twice what it was five years ago, and it is estimated that less than 1% of all co-op and condominium buildings in the city have private garages. In Boston, they can sell for as much as $175,000, and they go for as much as $75,000 in Chicago. But in other cities, like Los Angeles and Dallas, most condos include parking in their prices. For developers in New York, parking is the highest and best use for below-grade space and fetches about the same price per square foot as actual living space, which costs much more to develop. The average parking space costs $165,019, or $1,100 per square foot, close to the average apartment price of $1,107 per square foot.

This week is relatively light in terms of economic news. In fact, there are no announcements until Wednesday (see below). So what is the market doing with the 10-yr back down in the 5% range? Not much, mortgages are off about 1/8th from Fridays close, and that market people call “stocks”, continue to impress investors; opening this morning to the up side by about 53 pts to 13,906.

While watching a football game a couple weeks back, my Mom and Dad were discussing life and death. He told her, “Just so you know, I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.”

She promptly got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all his beer.

Week of July 23 – July 27